1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a novel fibre optic transceiver for use in a telecommunications system. Specifically, the present invention concerns a fibre optic transceiver in which the optical components, interface, management functionality and management interface are all integrated on a single module capable of being plugged into and removed from the telecommunication""s parent system.
2. Background of the Invention
In order to meet demand for increased speed and capacity, optical telecommunications systems are being developed in which data is transmitted at a rate of 10 Gbit/s per second. The implementation of 10 Gbit systems has to overcome the fundamental problems of interfacing high frequency signals from an optical module to a customer""s system. Connectors suitable for 10 Gbit operation are both costly and difficult to utilize.
FIG. 1 shows a known optical transceiver module which is connected to the telecommunications system (not shown) via a rail type arrangement. Here transceiver 100 is inserted into chassis 101 which must be first mounted onto base plate 102. This current arrangement is costly and suffers from poor electromagnetic (EMI) shielding.
Emerging standards for 10 Gbit systems require successful integration of 10 Gbit integrated circuits (IC""s) with suitable multiplexer, demultiplexer and framing functionality. This alone is a considerable technical challenge facing implementation of 10 Gbit optical solutions. Furthermore, customers require that the transceiver modules are removable, known in the field as xe2x80x9chot pluggabilityxe2x80x9d. Once the addition of management functions via a management interface are included, the resulting implementation is large, costly and inefficient in terms of power usage.
Current systems utilize 10 Gbit serial or wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) transceiver modules which demultiplex the 10 Gbit signal into a number of lower speed signals. These low speed signals are then interfaced to system boards containing the higher functionality requirements. These systems typically require 8 to 16 low speed signals to reduce the interface problems to an acceptable level. In multiple implementations this results in the technical problem of routing a large number of signal traces both in the module and on the customer""s board. In addition these systems tend to be customer specific and the achievable performance is dependent on the particular combination of integrated circuits (IC""s) used.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to overcome, or at least mitigate, the above mentioned technical problems.
According to the present invention there is provided an optical transceiver module comprising a housing having disposed therein a transmitter and a receiver, characterized in that the housing further comprises a pair of grooves disposed on opposite sides of said housing, the grooves having a plurality of spring-like fingers arranged to enable the module to be removably inserted into a suitably configured board.
According to a further aspect of the present invention there is provided an optical transceiver system comprising the module described above, wherein said system further comprises a chassis having said suitably configured board disposed therein, and chassis electrical connector means arranged to receive said module electrical connector means
The present invention overcomes these problems by integrating all the requirements into a single module capable of being plugged into or removed from an operational parent system. The use of specifically designed components in a defined environment results in an easy to use, efficient solution to 10 Gbit implementations. The present invention covers all implementations of high-speed optical transceivers such as WDM, serial, single mode and multimode. The present invention is applicable to transceivers operating at speeds other than 10 Gbits. The resulting family of transceivers allows customers access to modules of defined performance and has the flexibility to upgrade or change system configurations by exchanging module types.
The industry standard XAUI interface uses four channels of data each typically running at 3.125 Gbit/s. By utilizing a PCB connector designed to operate at such speeds the module, according to the present invention, can be easily interfaced to system boards whilst significantly reducing the number of PCB traces and interconnections required.